Ben 10: Ultimate Alien

♥	This article is dedicated to Dwayne McDuffie (February 20, 1962 - February 21, 2011, from complications of emergency heart surgery), the man who also brought us Static Shock and Justice League Unlimited.

Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
"There's a time to go hero, and a time to go Ultimate"
Genre: Action Adventure Science fiction Fantasy Drama Running Time: 22 minutes Country: United States Release Date: April 23, 2010 - April 1, 2012 Network(s): Cartoon Network Created by: Man of Action Distributed by: Warner Bros. Television Distribution Starring: Yuri Lowenthal Ashley Johnson Greg Cipes Dee Bradley Baker Paul Eiding Vyvan Pham Jeff Bennett John DiMaggio Kevin Michael Richardson Paul Eiding Chris Pratt Seasons: 3 Episodes: 52 Previous show: Ben 10: Alien Force Next show: Ben 10: Omniverse

Ben 10: Ultimate Alien is the third iteration of the Ben 10 franchise and the sequel of Ben 10: Alien Force. It was created by the studio Man of Action and produced by Cartoon Network Studios.

Summary

A year after Ben Tennyson defeated Vilgax, he's known the world over as a hero - to kids, anyway. Adults are somewhat more suspicious. Armed with his mysterious new "Ultimatrix," which can transform his aliens into their "ultimate" forms, Ben and his pals Gwen and Kevin are ready for more action.

Why It Goes Ultimate Indeed

1. It completely recaptures the quality and effort used from the original show.
2. The first season's plot is truly amazing and easy to follow.
3. The "Ultimate Alien" concept is very interesting.
4. Amazing theme music.
5. Not only the Ultimatrix retains all Alien Force aliens, including Swampfire, Alien X, Jetray, Humungousaur, Rath and Echo Echo, but also a tons of new aliens in the Ultimatrix, including Water Hazard, Armodrillo, NRG, AmpFibian, Terraspin, Clockwork and Eatle.
6. Tons of likable characters, especially Ben, Gwen, and Kevin. Ben’s girlfriend, Julie, and her alien pet, Ship, are also still likable.
   • Sandra and Carl Tennyson have gotten some character growth that now makes them likable.
   • There are tons of other likable characters, including Grandpa Max, Cooper, Jimmy Jones and Paradox.
7. Brought back Vilgax in Season 3, and he is still a great villain.
8. Despite the show being dark, it still has tons and tons of hilarious moments.
9. Brings back fan-favorite aliens from the original series like Heatblast, Wildmutt, Stinkfly, XLR8, Upgrade, Four Arms, and Ripjaws.
10. The franchise is given another chance to excel in its captivating worldbuilding and bombastic sound design.
11. Ben's newfound fame and disdain for it adds a lot of character development potential for him, especially in the first half of Season One.
12. It had an excellent crossover with Generator Rex titled "Ben 10/Generator Rex: Heroes United".
13. In “The Forge of Creation,” Ben Tennyson’s younger self from the old show made an appearance! And they got Tara Strong to reprise her role as Young Ben Tennyson.
14. Tons of great episodes.
15. Tons of awesome new villains, including Aggregor, Ultimate Kevin, Will Harangue and Dagon.
    • It also saw the return of several villains from the Original Series, including Zombozo, Eon and Rojo.
16. Really good animation that further captures the quality from the original series.
17. Incredible voice acting, especially Yuri Lowenthal as Ben, Ashley Johnson as Gwen, Greg Cipes as Kevin and even Chris Pratt as Cooper.

Bad Qualities

1. This entry still uses the same bland (albeit excellent) art style seen in Alien Force except a little better and a slight improvement than before.
2. It can feel like a Zack Snyder movie as a cartoon sometimes due to its dark tone, especially in its second season with the Dagon Arc. In fact, some viewers may not appreciate the tone being even darker than Alien Force, and there are genuinely disturbing scenes especially in the second half of Season One.
3. Like Alien Force, some people consider it inferior to the original series.
4. Season Two, while still good, had a lot of filler episodes.
5. While most of the episodes are great, there are some bad episodes, like Duped.
6. The title is sadly misleading due to Ben has only used 8 ultimate forms, and they were rarely used.
7. Vilgax/Dagon can be considered lame to some.
8. Gwen can be easily more bland and unlikable like in the 3rd season of Alien Force by many.
9. The final battle between Ben and Vilgax was extremely disappointing, as Ben wields Ascalon and just stabs Vilgax.
10. There are 4 ultimate alien designs that are lazy and didn't really look that great, for example,
    • Ultimate Big Chill is a simple boring repaint making from cool icy blue to red with flames over his design.
    • Ultimate Wildmutt - besides just his repaint, all he has only 1 new ability is that he can talk.
    • Ultimate Cannonbolt - very simple repaint with nipples or spikes.
    • Ultimate Way Big - inspired by Ultraman's design from "Ultraman Tiga", very simple repaint.
11. Most of the aliens from the original series that appeared in the intro (Grey Matter, Wildvine, Ditto, Spitter, Eye Guy, Blitzwolfer, Snare-oh, Frankenstrike, Buzzshock and Arctiguana) were never used!.
12. Again, there are animation errors in lots of episodes, and once again, it gets off-model usually.

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